The Disappearing Spoon: a science history podcast with Sam Kean

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The Halley's Comet Panic

The 1910 return of Halley’s comet was greeted with rapture around the world—at least at first. Due to irresponsible speculation by scientists about the theoretical dangers of a close encounter with a comet, many people grew terrified of Halley’s approach and took drastic measures. They fled their homes, hid out in wells or caves, even committed suicide. It’s a grave reminder of scientific communication gone very wrong.

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  The Sad Story of Darwin’s Self-Procleimed “Stupidest” Child

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  The Birds and the Bees and the Frogs

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  The Would-Be Saint's Battle over Down Syndrome

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  The Battle over Human Chromosomes

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  The Winter when People Ate Tulips

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  Why Keep a Diary of a Toxic Snakebite?

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  Machiavellian Microbes

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  The Woman Who “Turned Back a Plague of Old Testament Proportions”

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  The Doom Lurking inside Trees

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  The Mona Lisa of the Seine

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  Savant Idiots

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  When Mummymania Swept the World

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  The Sadder Side of the Nobel Prizes

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  The Scientific Way to Fool a Nazi

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  The Mysterious Mote